The eurozone has fallen into recession for the first time since the single currency was introduced in 1999, official figures show this morning.

Eurostat, the European Union statistics agency, said third quarter GDP across the 15-nation eurozone shrank 0.2 per cent, following a 0.2 per cent fall in the previous quarter. A recession is defined as two quarters of negative growth.

Yesterday, Germany, Europe's largest country, fell into recession for the first time in four years but it emerged today that GDP in France is still growing, up 0.14%. However, Spain admitted today that growth shrank by 0.2 per cent.

Germany slump into recession follows Ireland, which announced in September that its economy had suffered a 1 per cent contraction in the first half of the year, bringing to an end the rapid growth of the Celtic Tiger years.

However, France has reported positive growth for the third quarter of this year. In August it emerged that French GDP shrank 0.3 per cent in the second quarter, but figures released this morning show the country's economy grew 0.14 per cent in the three months to the end of September.

Christine Lagarde, the finance minister, said: “It’s a surprising figure. Everyone was expecting a negative number and was preparing to argue about a recession, because a recession is technically two consecutive quarters of decline. Well, in France, contrary to Germany which shrank 0.5 per cent and Britain which shrank 0.5 per cent, the economy grew by 0.14 per cent.”

Two influential forecasts had predicted a eurozone recession in recent days. Yesterday, the influential Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) forecast simultaneous recession in the United States, Japan and the eurozone, raising the spectre of the worst global slump of the post-war era.

Earlier this month, the European Commission said the eurozone had already slumped into recession.

In its growth forecast, the commission said that overall economic output fell by 0.1 per cent between July and September and will fall by a further 0.1 per cent in the final quarter of the year.

In Britain this week, Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, warned that the British economy faces its toughest year in almost three decades. The UK is expected to fall into recession by the end of this year after GDP figures in October showed the economy shrank by 0.5 per cent in the third quarter.

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